26 OCT 2022 · “Theater can contribute to ending the occupation” Marina Barham is the co-founder and director of Al-Harah, a theater close to Bethlehem in Palestine. She strongly believes theater can help both children and adults not only deal with the traumas of occupation, but also to resist it. In a constantly unsafe situation like an ongoing occupation, theater can help children feel safe again, according to Marina Barham of Al-Harah Theater in Bethlehem in Palestine. She has been involved in making theater in the occupied Westbank for almost three decades, and shares her experiences with interactive theater: “We had heard from schools that children were very inactive, traumatized, they literally wouldn’t move. We decided to talk to social workers and children psychologists about how we can help children get through the daily trauma. We developed an interactive show, with music, exercise, songs, lots of colours. We talked to the children, told them we were scared too, that we also sometimes wanted to close our eyes and just scream to get rid of the tension. Initially they hardly showed reaction, but after ten, fifteen minutes, they started to react, to move, to express themselves.” Al-Harah Theater is deeply rooted in the community, as the name clearly shows: Al-Harah means The Neighbourhood. Barham is one of the founders, after she had worked for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and for her own consultancy company for some years and tried to convince influential people from abroad to help end the Israeli occupation of Palestine. By coincidence, she became involved in theater. Ever since, she tries to help both children and adults deal with the trauma of occupation, and contribute to a free Palestine.

29 AUG 2022 · Fréderike Geerdink speaks to Viruben Nandakumar a Tamil activist based in London about the situation facing the Tamils in Sri Lanka after the genocidal attacks they faced in 2009 by the Sri Lankan army.

4 AUG 2022 · The revolution in Rojava, or North and Northeastern Syria, has “completely refreshed my activism”, said writer and feminist Rahila Gupta in a new episode of Avaşîn podcast. After having waged a struggle against racism and sexism, mainly focused on trying to eradicate gender-based violence against women, in London for forty years, visiting Rojava gave her new insights. “The level of commitment of going from home to home to talk to people about their vision for a new society… I am not sure if we have that kind of commitment in the west. It’s what makes a difference.”

29 JUN 2022

29 MAY 2022 · As climate change dries out the rivers in Kenya, Winnie Cheche fights to protest the wildlife. She speaks with journalist Fréderike Geerdink about her activism.

14 MAY 2022 · -After the referendum about Catalonian independence in October 2017, the work of cultural organisation Omnium Cultural was expanded: suddenly they found themselves going to trails of prosecuted fellow activists, and to prisons to visit their people. Omnium international representative Elena Jiménez i Botías: “We were not familiar with that.”

30 APR 2022 · -Vreer Verkerke advocates rights of trans people - and Kurds -Since the 1990s already, vreer verkerke, who always writes their name with lower case letters, has been waging a struggle for trans peoples’ rights. The more insight they got into power structures and oppression, the more they spoke out about other peoples’ rights as well, like Palestinians and Kurds.

26 MAR 2022 · -Marisela Ramirez is part of the leadership of the Resistance and Popular Rebellion Block, a cooperation of several resistance groups against the authoritarian leadership of the Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele. She learned to struggle for freedom from her mother and gets inspired by the veterans in the movement, who once waged a guerrilla struggle in the country. She talks about her struggle with Fréderike Geerdink, host of Avaşîn Podcast.

1 MAR 2022 · Avaşîn Podcast: Fréderike Geerdink talks to Lina Zedriga, the second most important leader of the National Unity Platform, the grassroots political party in Uganda that is challenging the long-time rule of dictator Museveni.

9 FEB 2022 · Nadja Duhacek has been part of Serbia's Women in Black for some seventeen years. She shares how she got involved, and explains in what way the Women in Black struggle against yet again, increasing nationalism and militarism. Below are just selected excerpts, listen to the full episode of Avaşîn Podcast.